5 min readAug 12, 2025 12:06 PM IST
First published on: Aug 12, 2025 at 12:06 PM IST
Written by Meghna Bal
When I was a little girl, my earliest and deepest camaraderie was with dogs. Not just our dogs at home, most of whom were rescued from the street as puppies, but the canines dotting my colony. Most were eager for a pat here or a scratch there, and some were timid but eventually came around. In nearly four decades of going up to dogs on the street, I’ve never had a bad experience, that is, been bitten (or even growled at). I cannot say the same for my experiences with humans, but that is another story. I am, then, shocked and disgusted by the recent order of Justices Pardiwala and Mahadevan, asking the NCR municipal authorities to willfully disregard existing law and pick up all stray dogs from the streets of New Delhi.
In this context, I wish to bring the following to the attention of the Supreme Court.
First, stray dogs do not become more territorial and aggressive when they are fed. A study by researchers at the Dog Lab of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata found that humans played a significant role in dog behaviour. Kindness to strays may result in significantly less conflict with humans. Ergo, where people fed dogs and were generally beneficent towards them, the dogs were more approachable because they did not see humans as a threat. Further research by the Dog Lab indicates that strays are not aggressive or unfriendly animals. In 1,941 dog sightings, the researchers found extremely low levels of aggressiveness among strays, both towards humans and other animals.
Second, it is well-established that humans in our country have a largely symbiotic relationship with the stray animals on our streets. They keep rat populations in check, and mitigate criminal activity by staying vigilant through the night. They also serve as quotidian companions for the loneliest of us, those who have no one to turn to. If all stray dogs are picked up, and rat populations in the city mushroom, and we see a rise in cases of bubonic plague, who will be answerable?
Third, rabies is not only caused by stray dogs. It can be caused by monkeys, cats, rats, squirrels, and cattle. The high incidence of rabies deaths is possibly because of the limited availability of rabies immunoglobulin (RIG), which one study found was only available in 20 per cent of healthcare centres surveyed. RIG is a necessary treatment for more severe animal bites. If you go to a private hospital, a rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin, if available, will cost at least Rs 30,000, if not more. If you want to get it from a government hospital, there are fixed timings to get it on any given day, which means that if you get bitten after these timings, too bad for you. Rabies deaths are a failure of policy and governance. And by putting the blame on the shoulders of dogs, the SC is absolving the state of neglecting its citizens.
Fourth, studies have found that children are more prone to dog bites than adults, but this is not because dogs are insidious creatures looking to prey on the young of other species. It is a lot more complicated. Dogs can be in pain or have an illness, which may make them more aggressive. According to a research paper titled “Pet dog bites in children: management and prevention”, smaller children have a greater tendency to move their faces closer to novel objects, which can trigger reactions from dogs. Researchers also note that children tend to be less inhibited around animals than adults. The responsibility lies with parents to supervise and manage interactions between children and animals, and indeed all other beings. Human beings present the greatest danger to our children in the city, with more than a lakh cases of crimes against children being registered in 2022. Yet, we do not see any suo motu cases being taken in such matters? Why?
Fifth, a major reason for the failure of the animal birth control (ABC) in Delhi is the unwillingness of the MCD and NDMC to pay organisations that have been carrying out sterilisations for them. I know of NGOs that were owed multiple crores by the municipal authorities for the sterilisations that they carried out, yet the authorities have not paid them. Most did not speak out because of fear of administrative retribution. Instead, they drop out of the ABC programmes altogether.
The law is meant to protect the vulnerable. And there is no creature more deserving of that protection than one who has given us loyalty without ever asking for anything in return. We owe them not exile, but dignity. And we owe ourselves the kind of society that measures its greatness not by how it treats the powerful, but by how it treats those who have no power at all. To the Supreme Court: Please set aside the order and direct the NCR authorities to do their jobs by implementing a sterilisation and vaccination program.
The writer is Director of the Esya Centre, a New Delhi-based tech policy think tank. Views are personal
The police have asked the Chakan Municipal Council to take appropriate action against street dog menace in the area. (Representative Image) 
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